Exhaustible Resources, Technology Choice and Industrialization of Developing Countries

How should the world economy adapt to the increased demand for exhaustible resources from countries like China and India? To address that issue, this paper presents a dynamic model of the world economy with two technologies for production; a resource technology which uses an exhaustible resource as an input and an alternative technology, which does not. I find that both the time path of resource extraction and the adoption of the alternative technology depend on the optimal allocation of capital across the technologies, and the size of the capital stock in relation to the resource stock. In particular, if the capital stock is small, only the resource technology is used initally, and the alternative technology is adopted with a delay. Next, the model is calibrated to analyze the e¤ects of industrialization of developing countries on the extraction of oil and technology choice for energy production. As a result of industrialization, resource extraction increases and the alternative technology is adopted earlier.Exhaustible resources; Technological change

Patent Scope and Technology Choice

This paper analyzes the effect of an increase in patent scope on R&D and innovation. It presents a model where patent scope affects an entrant firm's technology choice and thereby creates a trade-off between R&D investments and wasteful duplication of R&D. The model predicts that an increase in patent scope can increase the probability of innovation if the incumbent’s profit increase from innovation is large and the patented technology has a small advantage over the alternative technology. However, when the model is extended to Stackelberg competition or licensing, the benefit of a broad patent scope to a large extent disappears.Innovation; Patents; Patent policy; Licensing

The World Distribution of Productivity: Country TFP Choice in a Nelson-Phelps Economy

This paper builds a theory of the shape of the distribution of total-factor productivity (TFP) across countries. The data on productivity suggests vast differences across countries, and arguably even has “twin peaks”. The theory proposed here is consistent with vast differences in long-run productivity, and potentially also with a twin-peaks outcome, even under the assumption that all countries are ex-ante identical. It is based on the hypothesis that TFP improvements in a given country follow a Nelson-Phelps specification. Thus, they derive from past investments in the country itself and, through a spillover (or catch-up) term, from past investments in other countries. We then construct a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model of the world which has externalities: each country invests in TFP and internalizes the dynamic effects of its own investment, while treating other countries' investments as given. Average world growth is endogenous, as is the distribution of TFP across countries. We find that small idiosyncratic TFP shocks can lead to large long-run differences in TFP levels and that, in the long run, the world distribution of TFP across countries may be asymmetric, i.e., twin-peaked, or bimodal. More specifically, twin-peaked world distributions of TFP arise if the catch-up term in the Nelson-Phelps equation has a sufficiently low weight. If, on the other hand, technological catch-up is important, the world distribution of TFP is unimodal, though it may still have large dispersion.Growth; Inequality

Global Logistics System Asia Co., Ltd.

Most people concur that electronic markets constitute a significant innovation that will radically alter markets in the future. However two key questions remain. Who will stand to benefit from electronic markets? How should various existing market players position themselves in regard to initiatives to establish such markets? This case discusses these two questions by studying the air cargo industry in Hong Kong, where an electronic trading network has recently been launched with considerable success. It analyzes how and why this electronic network became an instant success and it also addresses whether the network will evolve into an electronic market. Furthermore, what stakeholders are in favor of such a move and who will seek to resist it

Effects of blood withdrawal and reinfusion on biomarkers of erythropoiesis in humans: Implications for anti-doping strategies

To discriminate autologous blood doping procedures from normal conditions, we examined the hematological response to blood withdrawal and reinfusion. We found that biomarkers of erythropoiesis are primarily affected in the anemic period. Therefore, individual variations in [Hb] exceeding 15% between samples obtained shortly before any major competition would be indicative of autologous blood manipulation